# 95
The Third Man, 1949 Directed by Carol Reed
What a cool theme song!
You would think a movie set in Vienna; a movie where the city is not only a character in the movie, but a very important one would use the music of the area – say a Vienna waltz? Nope Carol Reed picks a strange instrument, the zither, think hammered dulcimer, and like the city, it to is a character in one of the best thrillers in cinema history.
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| Carol Reed and Anton Karas |
This Graham Greene/Carol Reed collaboration was one of the 1st post WWII thrillers to use a war-torn, bombed our city, as part of the action and in some instances the reason for the action. Greene a great novelist wrote the third man strictly for the screen with Carol Reed, but after its box office success, he turned it into a best selling novel.
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| Carol Reed and Graham Greene |
Reed/Greene worked only on one other project, 1948’s Fallen Idol. To bad they didn’t try another cause The Third Man is one of the best atmospheric films, with great pacing and just too damn cool photography.
Plus it has maybe the best cameo in all of movies.
People love to compare it to Hitchcock but I think with its seedy tones, and really creepy characters and a less than brilliant hero, that the Third man is as good as anything of Hitchcocks’.
And just think David O Selznick who helped finance the movie wanted Noel Coward to play the part of Harry Lime- geez!!
What a bone head
You should buy you a copy today cause your watch it at least 5 times before your cuckoo clock strikes five.
Enjoy this BBC documentary on the third man Part 1 of 7
101 Great Films:
great job with blog, but I would have placed this movie much higher
ReplyDeletenice pictures and enjoyed the video
ReplyDeleteI agree Cary this film should have been much higner, but nice job on the montage.
ReplyDelete